Kris Freeman

“I should have learned to play tennis.”

That pretty well sums up Kris’s feeling about the 15K. I finally got a chance to catch up with him on the phone. It’s morning in Japan now, and he’s still in bed. So here’s the inside scoop:

Kris felt amazing today - yesterday - whenever it was. It was one of those days where he could bury himself repeatedly - just as hard as he needed to - and recover. The efforts simply didn’t hurt. The good news is that he’s extremely fit. The bad news is that he may have been virus-doping. He had enough of a scratch in his throat (which is very uncommon for him) that it seems clear that he has aquired some sort of virus. There is a lot of sickness floating around the village.

Quite a lot of people have experienced the effects of virus doping. Skiers often don’t realize what’s going on - they have a great day, and then get sick right afterwards and say “bummer, just when I was starting to feel good…”. I’m not aware that anybody has ever documented or studied the phenomenon, but really good performances shortly after exposure to a virus are not at all uncommon. However, this does raise some concern for the short-term future. The good news is that Kris doesn’t feel any worse this morning - no symptoms beyond what he had yesterday. He’s taking every precaution he can, and is looking forward to the 50K in full hopes that he can stay healthy

So, then, if he felt so amazing yesterday, how could he have done so badly? It’s an obvious question. Plenty of people had to contend with the snowsquall, and some did pretty well. There are a couple of factors. First - the timing. The snow started just a few minutes prior to Kris’s start. It took a little while for it to really slow things down, and he had maybe one K or less of decently good skiing. But then it was like glue. It kept snowing hard until mid-way through Kris’s second (of two) laps. It gradually got faster as racers packed in the new snow, but it stayed extremely slow for Kris the entire time. The starters right around Kris certainly seem to have gotten the worst deal on the day.

The second factor to consider is skis. The conditions prior to the storm were very hard and fast. Kris had chosen to race on a pair of skis he’s had a great deal of success with in that type of condition. They’re extremely stiff - 130KG closing flex as measured by Fischer - and they have an extremely short, “hot” pressure distribution. These skis were by far the fastest skis Kris had during his testing and warm-up. It’s easy to say that it might have been prudent to take a different pair based on the possibility of falling snow - but that’s a tough call to make from half a world away. He went with the best skis he had when he had to make the decision. Once the snow started those skis were done for the day, with no question whatever. The difference between an extremely stiff, hot, hardpack ski and a ski with a milder flex in falling new snow can be huge - far beyond what you might imagine if you haven’t actually tested ski constructions in such conditions. Ironically, I saw a simlar phenomenon in testing yesterday at Grafton. Differences in ski construction are very significant.

Once the snow started the Red Group skiers had an opportunity to change skis. All of these guys have plenty of options, and I imagine it must have been quite a scramble to make adjustments, but there was a lot of ski switching going on. By the time Kris came around to start his second loop the red group skiers were starting. They were in a different race. Kris could ski behind them on the hard V1 climbs where the agressive loading of his skis could make the things release a little bit. It wasn’t hard to follow guys going up the hills. But it was hopeless on the downhills - stop-and-go skiing. The guys going past him were gliding through transitions and half-way up the hills, while Kris was coming to a stop in the bottom of the saddle and climbing back out from the base of every climb.

Kris is pretty bummed about the race. He says it would be easier to take if he hadn’t felt great. But he did feel great. He focused on this event in preparation for the past year, and he feels that he had a top-ten performance today. I’ve heard speculation that he shut-down the effort to save it for later events, but that’s not the case. He raced as hard as he could for 15K, and felt fantastic doing it. There was no question of giving up, or saving it, or anything else. He wasn’t getting splits telling him he was in 65th place - if he had he suggested that he might have dropped out.

Kris knows that this looks pretty bad. He doesn’t feel that he or the team have anything to apologize for in today’s effort, but he’s aware that there will be plenty of armchair quarterbacks out there criticizing the efforts and decisions of the whole team. Kris is hopeful that he’ll be able to do his part so shut those folks up in the 50K.